Phillips kicking strong for UF

GAINESVILLE -- The way Jonathan Phillips sees it, there might be no debate about the Bowl Championship Series standings if he'd made at least one more swift curl of his right leg.

The Florida Gators' kicker is 9-of-9 on field goals and 44-of-45 on extra points, numbers that point to a potential 8-0 season dancing atop the BCS ceiling if he had gotten a crack at late fourth-quarter kicks against Ole Miss.

Florida's record might be perfect if not for the one kick he didn't make and the one kick he didn't take. Or perhaps Florida wouldn't have battered the last four Southeastern Conference opponents 201-43 if that 31-30 loss to the Rebels on Sept. 27 didn't fuel their recent rabid play.

It's always fun to debate, right? Phillips told the Sentinel this week that he's confident he would have made both the extra point that got blocked with 3:28 left and a potential 49-yard game-winning field goal in the last minute that Coach Urban Meyer didn't order.

From the Ole Miss 32-yard line, the Gators decided to rush quarterback Tim Tebow on a fourth-and-1 play with 46 seconds left.

Tebow is usually a safe bet in short yardage, but the Rebels loaded the box and stopped him. Phillips never got a shot at what would have been a career-long field goal by nine yards.

Phillips said for every 50-yarder he misses in practice, he consistently makes "nine or 10."

"I knew I could make it. I wanted to go kick it," Phillips said.

"Who would want a kicker on their team who didn't think they could go kick the field goal to win the game? If the extra point hadn't gotten blocked, we probably would have ended up in overtime and I would have been kicking it again."

If No. 5 Florida (7-1, 5-1 SEC) could have coupled an 8-0 record with its recent SEC dominance -- beating traditional powers LSU and Georgia by a combined 100-31 score -- undefeated teams such as Alabama (No. 1 in BCS), Texas Tech (No. 2) and Penn State (No. 3) might have had trouble staving them off the top spot.

That's a September fantasy, not a November reality. But a bitter approach to the loss might have derailed the path that still has Florida in the thick of a national title hunt.

The Gators can clinch the SEC East title with a win Saturday at Vanderbilt (5-3, 3-2) at 8 p.m. on ESPN2.

With a 4-0 finish of the regular season against Vandy, South Carolina, Citadel and Florida State, the Gators could be in prime position heading into the Dec. 6 championship game in Atlanta.

Florida is currently No. 5 in the BCS standings behind No. 4 Texas, which lost a heartbreaker to Texas Tech last week.

It's evident the Gators have moved on from Ole Miss the moment they hit the weights on Monday, Sept. 29. The heartbreaking nature of the loss has subsided.

When asked how familiar he still is with the details of the Ole Miss game, senior offensive tackle Phil Trautwein quickly segued into how Vanderbilt is a good team that beat South Carolina and Auburn.

When asked if anybody ever brings up the Ole Miss details, Trautwein says no way.

"We had to learn from our mistakes," Trautwein said. "I hate talking about it because it's in the past. I'm just looking at the last few games and how the offense is clicking."

The recent surge has validated what the coaches say they thought about the team in the offseason: that maturity had permeated the meeting rooms, team meals and practices.

Sophomore linebacker A.J. Jones said he'd rather embrace the loss than dwell on it. Besides, it might have been the right ingredient to a magical season.

"Everything happens for a reason," he said.

Yet one possibility still creeps into Phillips' head occasionally.

"We could have been 8-0," Phillips said.

If the Gators really are destined for a magical season, Phillips could still get his chance for late-fourth-quarter heroics.

"A lot of times if you think about it, stupid things like making a field goal or kicking it out of bounds can change the entire game," Phillips said. "That one little thing could have changed everything. You have to be ready to perform every time."